Scottish Widows Suck

This is a call to Scientists and Engineers everywhere to stand up and show there unity by pulling all their money out of the evil that is Scottish Widows. They do a thing called a professional mortgage except that they don't recognise either scientists or engineers as professional. Oh its OK to be some blood sucking solicitor, but apparently not to be one of the only two professions that actually revolutinised the world we are in today.

I sent them this email

I have just looked at your Professional Mortgage and upon trying to get a quote I realised that you recognised neither my Physics or my impending Engineering Professional Charter.

The UK has produced some of the greatest Physicsts and Engineers the world has ever known, without whom, we would probably still be living in wooden huts.

The professional contribution of scientists and engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton (three in a recent Top Ten Great Britons poll) is unquestionable and they would not be eligble for a Professional Mortgage and yet you would give it to some vet or solicitor.

I will be making sure that the universities and great scientific communitties around these Isles realise what sort of organisation you are and remove their custom from you.

CHANGE YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS, MORTGAGES, LOANS, ISA's

Meet the gastroclubbers

Well Me, Ailsa and all my mates have finally been perfectly captured. This article in the Sunday Times Style Magazine is so spot on that I have been two of the four Sunday watering holes they mentioned.

MATCH REPORT by Andy Clyde - Athletico Cowley - Truck Off!!!!!

ACFC 5-2 Critchleys
Goals: Dave, Maz, Morgan, Russ x2

Sponsors: 'The Marsh Harrier'

A solid win on a fine spring day, the latest installment in the epic ACFC/Truck rivalry was played out on Cowley Marsh. Played over 80 minutes, and mostly ten against ten, the Cowley really dominated the game from start to finish to secure the victory and level up the series. Played without a ref but generally in a very good spirit, it will be remembered for Russ two goals after handing the gloves to Steve, and Steve and Mark's aerial double act to gift Truck their 2nd goal in the dying minutes, and for Mark's red card - effectively the first ever for Cowley so after one game Mark steals the worst disciplinary record from me!

COME ON THE COWLEY!!!!!!

MATCH REPORT by Andy Clyde - Athletico Cowley - Roll Truck Roll

ACFC 1 (0) - (0) 0 Critchleys
Goals: Ali

League Table
Sponsors: 'The Marsh Harrier'

Another close match like last week but a match that we should probably have wrapped up long before the end. From the first whistle, the Cowley set out their stall and went onto the attack. Some great passing football should have produced goals in the first half but the tendency to overelaborate and to play the flashy first touch rather than the simple ball let us down. Having said that we did look solid at the back, with Dean doing his best to reign in his natural attacking instincts and even Maz tracking back to be the last defender at time!

Second half was more open, but we got the all-important goal and did enough to prevent an equalizer that would have stolen an undeserved point for our opponents. A good result then, albeit against a weaker team. The most impressive thing about the performance has to be that it was a team performance. All 9 players contributed and worked hard. The bad points would be the same as always, but we are improving. We did leave ourselves short at the back at times but either did enough in defence or Akil made the save.

COME ON THE COWLEY!!!!!!

Apple - iPod shuffle

Well after everything I have said about Apple and there evil ways I have bought a iPod Shuffle. I have immediately bought a pair of Sony Fontopia headphones (brilliant!!!) to not promote the evil that is Apple.

I would like to immediately say that the equivalent rivals such as Creative and Iriver to the iPod and the iPod mini are just as good but don't have to rely being part of the gang and if you don't own me your not cool. What Creative and Iriver don't do is infect your PC with legitimized spyware which allows Big Brother (or I like to say Big MAC) to spy on you and send back demographics to little men with glasses and huge bank balances like certain other companies I would not like to mention for legal reasons.

However (oh no I am going to be nice) the iPod shuffle is incredible!!!!! It is tiny, if any of you have a USB memory stick, it is that size but also contains batteries and a control system on it. The 1Gb version which I have, holds 250 songs, which is bags enough for the traveling I do and I get my PC to automatically freshen the songs from time to time. It doesn't have a display, but when you have 250 of your top songs on, who cares, just play which ever, when ever. The battery life is ssssssooooo impressive unlike the bigger iPods which rely on hard drives for storage (moving parts directly proportional to energy caned), I left my shuffle playing on Saturday evening by mistake and returned on Sunday morning to see it still playing happily and the battery light was still green for good. For running and other sporty stuff like that it is the ultimate music player!!!

The only down side it's Apple, I have to use iTunes and not my normal MP3 Jukebox, MusicMatch. Musicmatch is a billion billion billion time better than iTunes, it is easier to use, less processor intensive, better MP3 organisation and doesn't secretly run in the background. If you have ever installed iTunes, even if you think you have deleted it from your system and even though you may have not run it since booting up the PC, just check your processes now, iTunes is running now on your PC sendinf info to those little dudes). They force me to use their shite iTunes (IT SUCKS) so they can always have a connection to your computer open. If only they would stick to making bloody hardware and allow me to have the choice of software I wouldn't hate them so much.

The other thing which is a personal thing when you start the shuffle up it starts where it left off which is how you want it, but it would be nice (somehow) for me to be able to reset it so that it can start on the first song sometimes. Its only because the first track is music I do Qi Gong to. I realise this makes me in a minority of 6 Billion to 1, so I understand Apple not changing this.

All that apart its bloody good

MATCH REPORT by Andy Clyde - Athletico Cowley - At last, a game!

ACFC 3(2) - (0)1 J James Ltd
Goals: Maz, Ali, Tom

League Table
Sponsors: 'The Marsh Harrier'

After two weeks of weather interruption, the Cowley were back in action and at times it looked for all the world that we'd never been away. We eased into a 2-0 lead in the first half with some neat football and solid defending (Akil hardly got a touch!).

They came back strongly in the second half as you might have expected as they weren't a bad side. Again we defended solidly and resisted a large spell of pressure. They got the one goal but a combination of good work rate and a couple of saves kept us ahead. In the final minutes Tom stuck away his first of the season and the game was ours.

Some good points came out of last night. We defended well as a team with everyone playing their part. We toughed it out and for the first time, we at least matched our opponents for muscle. In these games, especially with the refs we've seen, we have to get physical.

If there are some bad points, they would be that we did concede a goal and that we failed to lock down the game when we could have. It's nice that we play attacking, Keegan-esque football as it always makes for exciting games, but at 2-1 up in the second half we shouldn't have been taking quick free kicks. That was the time to slow it down, pass the ball and let them chase the game. A minor point but something that has occurred in most games this season.
2 games unbeaten now, we're on a roll ;-)

COME ON THE COWLEY!!!!!!